Everything You Are
by Tyger and Darkdracofire
Summary: ...can I really play forever?" The darkness smiles down at him. "Of course you can. I'll teach you how." /Bakurae, gradually AU./


Everything You Are  
By Tyger.

[Manga-verse|BakuBakuish|M-for-violence-and-mindbreaking|gradual AU|~15 000 words|Judge's Pick, Yuugiou Novella Challenge 2006]

Beta'd by Azremodehar, with added advice from Simon (Fate VII) and Kiwi Warpole.

--

Bakura Ryou likes to look after people.  
He is quiet, and shy, and finds it terribly difficult to cope with social situations, but he likes to see people happy, and, even more than that, he likes to be the cause of that happiness. He likes to be relied upon, even if all he can do is bring a smile to someone's face.  
But he's terrible at getting to know people. He can file-away and remember names and dates and favourite things, but he can't hold up a coherent conversation for more than a few minutes at a time, unless he already knows the person involved quite well.  
All his relationships at school are deeply superficial, and that bothers him, a little. But, he has his Amane as soon as he gets home, and all thoughts of school-friends and classes leave his head as soon as he sees her. This bothers his mother greatly, but he's happy. Deliriously happy, he'll later say.  
When Amane dies - it was an accident, he _knows_ it was an accident, he's going to kill that sonnovabitch if he ever saw him again - his life falls apart.  
By the time he returns to school, even his superficial relationships are gone.

It isn't as if he doesn't try. He does, he tries and tries and tries - he's very trying. But he's so _desperate_ for friends that he tries too hard. He drives people away by caring too much.  
And that, in turn, makes him even more desperate.

--

Bakura Ryou has always believed in fate.  
But he's still surprised when he receives proof of it's existence - someone that can never leave him, someone who needs him. Someone who is already dead.

When he asks who he is, he identifies himself as "...an essence of darkness, I suppose,".  
"Darkness, huh," says Bakura. "You haven't answered my question, you know." But he calls him "Yami" from then on.

With the Ring on his chest, and Yami in his mind, Bakura changes, a little.  
He's still alone, at school, still quiet, and shy, and socially awkward - even more than he had been, actually - and he still likes to make people smile. But he stops trying to make friends. He loses his desperation. With someone who will never go away, he stops caring about the outside world.  
For the first time since Amane had died, he's happy.

--

Eventually, he graduates primary school. He's not sad to leave it; in fact, he barely notices. His world is no longer the one of corporeal things.  
But before long, junior high school changes his life.  
Girls - afterthoughts, really, not him-and-Yami, and not potential friends - start giggling at him. It makes him twitchy. But Yami starts paying more attention to him while he's at school - the girls whisper, too, and Yami _hates_ whispering - so he doesn't suppose it's _that_ bad.  
And, somehow, he manages to make some friends, for the first time in almost as long as he can remember. He doesn't know how it happened, and no matter how much he thinks about it, he can never figure it out. But he has friends. Other than Yami. That, admittedly, makes him a bit nervous - he knows Yami well enough by now to know that he is the exceedingly jealous sort. But, as it turns out, his new friends are geeks, and they play this game called "Monster World". Bakura has never heard of Monster World before, but as soon as he tries it he's hooked. And Yami is very, very interested in Monster World. So everything turns out okay.

Junior high is three years long. In that time, Bakura manages to beg, borrow, and steal most of the books for Monster World - though he has to end up buying some, that none of his friends have. Yami is very adverse to actually _buying_ things, and, somehow, it's rubbed off on Bakura. He's not quite sure why. He also makes his own board, which he is rather proud of, as it has taken him a very, very long time. You can tell which parts of it he had made first, too, due to his skill-level. He had planned to wait a few months, before starting a _new_ board, but he didn't know what do do with his time once it was done. So he starts to replace the old pieces, and make slight modifications. His friends had call him an obsessive idiot, but Bakura doesn't care. He _likes_ making things. It's just as good as looking after people. And Yami doesn't get jealous while he's working.

To celebrate their graduation of junior high, he and his friends get together for a game. One of his friends lives within walking distance from the school, so they go straight there after the ceremony. It's a good game; the villain - played by Bakura, this time. He likes it, and is good at it, though Yami is also an inventive co-conspirator - is just evil enough to be challenging, but not so difficult as to be impossible to defeat, the characters are interesting, and the plot one they haven't played to death yet, and Bakura can't help but wish that it'd go on forever.  
Afterwards, he will remember the amused whisper of "_As you wish_" in the back of his mind, but at the time he is oblivious.  
They play on into the night - they'd known it would be a long game, and had already organised to stay over - and, when his friends start falling asleep in the wee hours of the morning, Bakura is neither surprised or worried. It isn't unusual that he's the last to sleep; he finds it near impossible to relax when a game's on. So he makes notes as to where they're up to, packs everything away, puts everyone properly to bed once there's space, and goes to sleep.  
In the morning, he awakes to the frantic voice of his friend's mother.  
"_Oh, Bakura-kun, you're awake,_" she says, relieved. "_I can't seem to wake my son up._"  
"_Really?_" he replies, oblivious. "_Well, we _were _up very late last night, he's probably just tired._"  
"_Probably,_" she says, not convinced.  
"_Really,_" he smiles. "_Would you like me to make breakfast for them before I leave? That usually wakes them up._" Even though he's still only fifteen, his cooking skills are somewhat of a legend among his friends. It's his own special skill - neither of his parents are good cooks - and he's rather proud of it. But she shook her head, and smiled up at him.  
"_No, you get going. I know how your mother is._" He laughs, somewhat sheepishly.  
"_It's nothing as bad as that._" And it isn't. His mother is, admittedly, a little overprotective, but, seeing as she'd already lost one child, no one really blames her. So what if she requires him to be home by nine if he stays at a friend's house? Any child should be happy that their mother cares enough about them that she wants to see them! Any child should...  
Not that it doesn't rankle, a bit, and not that he doesn't complain about it, from time to time, but... he doesn't _really_ mind. Not _really_.  
Well, maybe a little. He's fifteen all ready!  
In any case, he gathers his things together, and leaves for home. It isn't until several days later that he notices his friend's avatars have somehow made it into his bag.

--

This break, he spends a lot of time at the hospital. It isn't the first time he's done such a thing - Amane, oh Amane, couldn't you have at least died painlessly? - but it's the first time he's kept visiting for such an extended period without ever talking to anyone.  
The parents blame him. He understands - he's the only one still healthy. The only one somehow still conscious. No matter the fact that there's no way he could have done it, no matter, that even if he could have, there's no proof. No matter. They still blame him. They still hate him.  
But that's okay. It's his fault.

He fights with Yami, for the first time.  
He refuses to speak with him, refuses to acknowledge his existence. He takes off the Ring, for the first time since he'd received it, and goes about his daily life as if the spirit had never existed.  
Between that, and his friends, he becomes very, very depressed.  
He writes to Amane more than usual, but it doesn't help much. He cooks, he does his homework, he gets ready for the new school year, and every other minute he can spare he's at the hospital.  
But no matter how hard he pushes himself, he can't forget the empty space where Yami had been.  
He cannot ignore it.  
He cannot move on.

Eventually, he just gives in. More than anything else, he hates being lonely.

--

Yami's angry at him. He's angry at Yami, too, he keeps telling himself... but somehow, he still feels bad. He shouldn't have taken off the Ring, he knows that. He _knows_ that.  
But Yami is very very angry, and even though he's just a spirit, an incorporeal thing, he still feels the bruises when he grabs him and _shakes_. Hand-shaped marks on his upper arms... Bakura's glad that it isn't hot enough to wear t-shirts, yet.  
It isn't until he promises to never, _ever_ take the Ring off again, _no matter what_, that Yami calms down enough to be coherent. For quite a while, Bakura wonders if Yami is going to lash out and hurt him, or at least - at _least_ - whack him over the back of the head for being such a stupid idiot. Yami is not exactly a nice person. But he never does. Bakura wonders about it, for a while, and decides it's probably because he's already been hurt, though it had been unintentionally.  
Yami rages at him, for what seems like hours. Yells, and screams, and is just _so angry_. Eventually, he gets sick of screaming, and disappears to the-place-in-the-back-of-his-mind to sulk. He doesn't talk to him again for three days. Bakura is silent throughout.

When the other finally comes out of his sulk, and sits on the bench behind him - he's cooking - he just _watches_. Watches, and apparently, thinks rather hard, as it isn't his I-will-kill-you-and-your-children-and-your-children's-children frown, but a more pensive, and somehow softer look. But still angry. Bakura's halfway through thinking '_How can I make it up to him?_' when he remembers what he'd done. He then completely ignores him back... or would have if, after about ten minutes of this, Yami hadn't have put his hand on his shoulder. Bakura jumps, shocked, and then hits the damn bastard with all of his rage. Of course, due to the incorporeal state of the other, his hand goes straight through him, and he hits the wall instead, which _just isn't fair, damnit_. His arms are still bruised, after all.  
He stands there like that, hand throbbing from the force of his own rage, for a long moment, until the tears he'd refused to shed start leaking out his eyes.  
"_Why?_" he asks.  
Yami looks at him, for a second - less angry, somehow.  
"Because you wanted it."  
"I-!"  
"You wanted to play with them forever. And now you can." And then there are fingers, suddenly there, again, in his hair, and he does not turn away.  
"But, I didn't _mean_..."  
"Of course not. You didn't know it was possible. But if you had, can you truly say you wouldn't have?"  
"What? I..." But he can't lie, and say he wouldn't. Not to Yami.  
And those hands draw him forward, and he welcomes the embrace, such that it is. And he cries, into that shoulder, that shoulder that isn't really there, but still seems more real than the rest of his life. He cries, and it is his last true act of grief.  
"...can I really play forever?" The darkness smiles down at him.  
"Of course you can. I'll teach you how."

--

He doesn't go to the hospital any more. When his parents notice him enough to ask about it, he simply says he's too busy with schoolwork to be able to manage the hour trip each-way, along with his hour-and-a-half trip to-and-from his new school. Which is sort of true.  
And even though he knows it's wrong, he doesn't feel bad about sort of lying to them.  
He finds his new school nice enough, though the girls fawn over him more than they had at his old one. He makes a few friends, and slowly introduces them to Monster World. They aren't really gamers, but they're good enough.  
He does his homework on the trip home, so that he has as much time with Yami, and his old friends, as possible.

--

It's about two months after school starts again that his mother dies.  
It's not as though he's surprised. She'd been sick for a very long time. Almost as long as he can remember. He feels almost as if he should be happy for her - she isn't in pain anymore, and she can be with _Amane_ now.  
But the grief is still overwhelming. He doesn't quite understand Yami's approval.

It was, he thinks much later, it was the grief that made him do the thing he did.  
He wouldn't have done it while he was in his right state of mind. He wouldn't have. ...Not at school, at least.

His father is grieving too much to truly understand what his son has been accused of (what his son has done! Oh, what he has _done_!), and so basically ignores the problem, and buries himself in the past, and his museum.  
Bakura organises everything, and just gets his father to stamp the necessary papers. He isn't surprised when his father announces his sudden joining of an overseas archaeological dig; in fact, he already has the papers to rent an apartment closer to his new school ready. He doesn't want to stay in his mothers house any more, either. Too many memories, and Mother's death had only made it worse.

--

He watches the streets of Domino go by, and thinks of how he's made it here.  
He'd never intended to go to Domino - it's nothing like a prestigious school, though not nearly as bad as Rintama, and he's always had very good grades. Studying is easy, when you're trying to avoid other things. But, he supposes, all things considered, it's a good compromise. He could be any number of much worse places now, after all. Jail, for instance.  
Yami finds his guilt amusing. "_You wanted to, so you did. What's wrong with that?_" he'd said to him, when he'd first realised what he'd done. And he finds himself agreeing with that more and more. He now feels more guilty about not feeling guilty, which everyone finds rather stupid, but, there it is.  
His friends aren't talking to him, though, which makes him sad. Can't they play together now? Isn't that all they've ever wanted? He's sure they'll come around, eventually. He has, after all.  
It's a short train-ride - only twenty minutes to get to school, and he doesn't even have to switch trains! He's impressed that he's managed to get an apartment so close, really; many families would desire such a place, with so much nearby. But apparently the son of this particular family had taken ill - though Bakura was beginning to guess that it wasn't the physical kind of ill - and they'd moved to Tokyo to get him better treatment. Apparently, he'd gone to Domino, too.  
According to the gossip of his landlady, there'd been a recent spate of people talking _ill_ in the area. He'd wondered briefly if there was something in the water - perhaps I should get a filter, Yadonushi? She'd laughed at him, for that, and instructed him to call her Moriyama-san instead. Yami had laughed at him too, afterwards. "_Don't worry, I won't let you... _take ill_. That would be most distressing... yadonushi._"  
"What, my name too good for the likes of you, now?" he'd laughed back.  
"Mmm, perhaps. But I doubt it. Naming things is an ancient magic, you know, and I _do_ try and avoid it."  
"I'd noticed," he'd said, a little put out. "You still haven't given me yours."

Domino High School is pretty much what he'd expected. Not quite as nice as he's used to, but still tolerable. And the location is very good. He's done his research well.  
He stands, for a second, and watches the flow of students as they enter. Nothing particularly unusual, really. A few street-tough types, of course, but that isn't too surprising. He wonders if he'll make friends again, and how long they'll last, if he does. He wonders how much more attention he'll have to draw to himself before he'll somehow get caught, anyway. He's tempted to find out, but - his current lifestyle is a nice one, and he doesn't really want to damage it, either. A fine balance.  
Who knows, though. Perhaps there won't be anyone interested in the slightest in Monster World.  
That may be the safest bet.

--

He knows, almost as soon as he enters it, that this is a strange classroom. Strange things have happened here. Strange people have made this room their own.  
It looks normal, on the surface - girls, giggling, whispering, but Yami is not watching _them_ at all, which is in itself all the proof he needs that something isn't quite right here. There's someone who looks to be a foreigner, though, when he opens his mouth his voice, although crude, has no accent at all. Perhaps only half, then. There's a girl that's not giggling at him - odd, he thinks, but then she looks at this _other_ boy, and all becomes clear. Hair that should never have existed. Short, and cute, _but_. Bakura can tell that _this_ is where the strangeness is coming from. This boy.  
This boy, that Yami _hates_, when he's never even spoken to him.  
Bakura feels very left out.

He's almost unsurprised, when they come and talk to him during break. They're strange, he's strange, it's almost _natural_ that they should be drawn to one another. That they should be friends.  
The strangest one - his name is Yuugi - is a really nice guy. Honestly nice, the sort of guy that would sacrifice himself for anyone he knows. Yami still hates him. Bakura thinks he's kind of an idiot, but he IS a nice guy, AND he knows a lot about games. He hopes they'll be able to become friends.  
They want to play Monster World with him, of course. He's not exactly sure this is a good idea, but... his friends aren't talking to him. One game couldn't hurt, could it? Just one game? But still...  
Instead of deciding, he asks about Yuugi's strange pendant. It looks a bit like the Ring, though decidedly more pyramid-shaped, so he's interested in it. Is this where the strangeness was coming from? Yuugi lets him look, but just _looking_ tells him nothing - magic isn't like that - so he _pushes_, just a little bit, just to tell, and-

- he thinks he's going to be sick.  
Luckily - luckily!- some girls come up then, and all but kidnap him. They seem to dislike Jounouchi quite a lot. He wonders if anyone's been grateful to be kidnapped before. Not that the gratitude lasts long - he dislikes girls, if he choses to think about it in such terms - but it _is_ something. And, luckily, he's spared their presence for an extended period of time by the arrival of a... very... unpleasant... teacher? Oh dear. And this teacher has, apparently _heard of him_. Oh. Damn. '_Don't worry, I'll take care of him,_' says Yami, maliciously.  
'_I don't know if that's a good..._' And then the teacher _pulls his hair_. His HAIR.  
'_You were saying?_'  
'_Do as you please._' Laughter, then, and he wonders if the teacher will be able to walk, come morning. Yami is not a _nice_ person, at all.  
'_I_ shall,' he whispers, full of malice, and Bakura gets an awful sense of foreboding. But perhaps that's just because he still feels like throwing up.

--

They want to play Monster World with him.  
They want to play Monster World with him _tomorrow_, and...  
They want to play Monster World with him tomorrow, and he finds that he doesn't want bad things to happen to them. And he knows that if they play, something bad will happen. He's feeling awful - what had that thing _done?_ - and he just wants to have some quiet. And Yami's feeling so, so angry and hateful...  
It would be dangerous. Too dangerous.  
So he tells them what happened.

Sort of.

--  
Yami's plotting something. He _knows_ Yami's plotting something. He just doesn't know _what_.  
It has to be something to do with Yuugi. He doesn't know how he knows that, but he does. So much _hate_. Yami isn't a nice person, he _knows_ that, but what could Yuugi possibly have done to him? They'd never even met before!  
He writes a letter to Amane, but doesn't feel any better. And then Yami starts _laughing_, and it's not his normal sort of laugh, it's quite insane, and then Bakura is _sure_ he's dreaming, because the Ring's in his chest - IN his chest! - and he can't control his body anymore, and Yami isn't a nice person, but he isn't as cracked-out as this, usually, either.  
He has to be dreaming.  
He has to be.  
Even after all he's seen, he can't believe this is real.

The teacher gets it, though, and he can't help but feel pleased about that.

They're home again, in this dream, and Yami is whispering to him, in their head, and it's all sugar-sweet and gorgeous, but this is a dream, this is a dream, this is all his stressed-out, guilt-ridden subconscious, and he's not listening, _he's not listening, HE'S NOT LISTENING_, and he forces himself to wake up, and it feels strangely like going to sleep.

--

When he wakes up, it's three in the afternoon, and, for some reason, he's lying on his couch, not his bed. Odd.  
He also has paint on his fingers, and...  
...oh. He's still dreaming. He has to be; he's never made Monster World figures of Yuugi and his friends - how could he, he'd only met them yesterday.  
Yesterday.  
_Shit_, he's missed school. THAT isn't going to go down well with his new teachers; it's only his second day! He'll have to make it up somehow. Though, the back-of-his-mind that isn't Yami says sneakily to him, once they see your grades, they won't care _what_ you do, as long as it's not blatantly illegal, or doesn't reflect badly on the school. Which is pretty much true, he knows, but it's still only his _second_ day. He really should've been there.  
Wait. This is a dream, anyway. It isn't real, it doesn't matter.

Yuugi and his friends come over after school, wanting to play Monster World, in this dream. Only, it isn't a dream, is it? It isn't.  
Even _his_ subconscious can't've thought up the feelings of pure, evil _glee_ coming from Yami. From someone else, maybe. But not Yami.  
Yami is not a nice person, but... he wouldn't... not for no reason. Not to someone he'd just met. It's too risky, they might be caught, somehow, locked away, and...  
Oh, gods. Yami isn't going to take his soul, is he? Not like before. He's going to kill him. He's going to take his soul and desecrate his body, and put the soul _back_.  
He's going to _kill_ Yuugi.

And, twisted though he is - though he _knows_ he is - Bakura Ryou can not forgive murder.

--

Afterwards, all he can remember of the game are brief flashes, short bursts of colour and sound, images of his game board from a totally new perspective - and he really does need to fix up the castle, didn't he? The paintwork is dreadful, up close. All he can remember is that he'd won, somehow, Zork - and Yami - are defeated, the game has ended, and nobody dies.  
Nobody except him, anyway.

Dying is the reason he can't remember much, he's sure. It's a truly unsettling experience.  
It had, he remembers, hurt, though he can't remember the pain. And it carried with it such a sense of _finality_. That's it, for him. It had really been somewhat of a pitiful life, he supposes as he looks down over his body, but it had been his, and he's quite sorry that he'd never get to do a lot of the things he'd wanted to do. Like fix the set of trees next to the castle; they'd been knocked about, a bit, with Yami running the game. No sense of gentle touch, in that one. Oh, and fix that roof, too; "bloodstained" hadn't really been the look he was going for. But, too bad. He's dead.  
He wonders, for a while, if this is it; he'll be stuck watching other people for eternity. That would be fair, though, he thought. But if time doesn't somehow speed itself up, a bit, he'll be mad within days. It isn't even going at _half_ the pace it usually does. Well, he _is_ dead, perhaps that's why. Perhaps he'll get used to it.  
That's when the Shinigami had arrives.

--

He never knows what he expected a Shinigami to be like, but it definitely isn't what he gets. Tall and gorgeous, in a girls-manga kind of way, and very aloof. But not in the cold, cynical, detached way you'd expect of a death god. It's really more like he's _stoned_ than anything, though with a lot more coherence than your average stoner.  
Perhaps that's the real reason people look forward to the afterlife?

The Shinigami tells him that he isn't going to the afterlife.  
That he is practically immortal, because of the Ring, and Yami. That neither of them are _ever going to let him go_.

Most people his age would be over the moon at the prospect of immortality. But Bakura has never been most people, and he'd already lost two of the most important people in his life. He _looks forward_ to dying and going to heaven so he can see them again. Even if he isn't sure he's going to heaven any more.

The Shinigami has him sign something, with ink that looked suspiciously like blood, and then he falls awake again.

--

The hours after that are a bit fuzzy, too. Trust him to only properly remember the weird bits. He's in shock, though - and not just from dying. Despite his blood flow having stopped for several minutes, his hand is still bleeding. He'd always bled a lot, he knows, but that is just _ridiculous_, if you ask him.  
No one does, though. They're more concerned with the fact that it _is_ bleeding. Rather nice of them, he vaguely thinks, before trying - and failing - to stand up on his own.

They feed him something, he can't remember what, only that it's warm, and makes him sleepy. He's too caught up trying to figure out who had been in his kitchen to take much notice.  
It must have been the girl, Anzu. Because Honda and Jounouchi had been fixing his hand, and Yuugi... Yuugi had kept _watching_ him. Watching him, with those big, purple eyes, and he'd've done _anything_ to get away from that gaze.  
But he couldn't really do anything, so he'd just averted his eyes.

--

He wakes around ten, and curses himself out for missing school _again_. And then he moves, and nearly dies of panic.  
His Ring is gone.  
His Ring is gone, where is his Ring, _have they taken his Ring?_  
He sits up, ignores the sinking feeling that is anaemia, and checks to make sure he's not dreaming.  
He's not.  
He's up, stumbling, not quite awake and with no sense of balance, but, somehow, he makes it to the Monster World table without falling flat on his face.  
And there's the Ring, there, on the floor.  
Here. Safe.  
The cord is broken - why is that? - but it's there, under his chair, and he suspects, as he knots the break back up, that Yuugi hasn't even seen it.  
That fills him with a lot more relief than he cares to admit, as he puts the Ring back on.

--

Yami doesn't immediately start raging at him, for his betrayal, or even for not having the Ring on for so long.  
That worries him. He's had Yami in his mind for so long that he's used to that _presence_ at the back of it, no matter what happens. Yami has never been quiet when he's been mad before, no matter _who_ he was mad at.  
Then again, he hasn't tried to kill anyone before, either.

He sits on the floor, at the head of the table, for a good long while. He's still not quite awake, still weak from blood loss, still in shock from the events of yesterday. He still clings to the notion that, soon enough, he'll wake up and this will all be just a dream. But he doesn't actually believe that, any more.  
As is usual in these situations, it's his bladder that forces him to get up, and get on with his life.

He's amazed at how much harder life is without his dominant hand functioning. Everything takes at least twice as long to do, and he can barely write at all. His teachers, he thinks, are just going to have to deal with him not turning up for a few more days; there's no point in him going to school without being able to do any work. He has his textbooks at home, though, so he'll try and complete the bits that he thinks they'll go through in class.  
There's very little else for him to do at home, after all, since if he can't write properly, he's definitely not going to trust himself with his board, or his models.

--

It's not until he's falling asleep that he hears Yami's voice again.  
He's being cursed at, which is not a surprise in the least. But the voice - it seems further away than usual, and so... well, he hesitates to use such a word for _anything_ to do with Yami, but the only word he can think of is weak.  
'_Take care of your spirit,_' the Shinigami had said, and he had agreed. So he puts his anger aside, and goes to the place-in-the-back-of-his-mind to see what he can do.  
It's easier than he'd thought.

--

He always starts off in "his" bit of the place. It's a messy sort of place, stuff everywhere, the decor a miss-mash of his mother's house and his friend's houses, and hey, that looks a bit like the pot plant he has in his apartment, doesn't it? And his board is here, too, though it's how he envisions it, not how it actually is. Yami is never here, though, so he quickly moves on.  
He squeezes through the narrow passage that leads to the alleyway - he's not quite sure what else to call it - and looks both ways twice before darting over to the ruins-space that's Yami's part of the-space-in-the-back-of-his-mind. _Things_ lurk in alleys, in his experience, and just because it's an ally in the back of his mind doesn't guarantee anything.  
Yami's not in "his" bit, either, though, which makes him rather worried. Yami's bit may look a lot like a natural disaster had just gone through, closely followed by a sandstorm, but he'd always - _always_ - been there before.  
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of hidy-holes, of course, but, just by stepping foot into the room, Bakura somehow _knows_ that the other isn't there.  
He doesn't think too much on how.

He can still hear the cursing, though, so he can't be _too_ far away. Only, where? Not in his room, not in Yami's room... where else is there?  
...well, there is the alley, but that isn't really a proper place. You don't _go_ there, you go _through_ there. It doesn't make any sense, for Yami to be there. Then again, very little about his life makes sense.  
Cautiously, he pokes his nose out into the alley. He hopes the _things_ wouldn't get him.

--

To start off with, he can't even decide which way to go. Both directions look the same, after all, and though Yami's still cursing at him, he can't tell where the voice is coming from; the alley echoes.  
He looks left. He looks right. They look identical. In the end, he just closes his eyes, spins around in a circle, and starts walking. He walks straight into the wall on the other side of the alley, but he has a general direction to go in, now.

The longer he spends looking, the more nervous he gets. The more nervous he gets, the more he clings to the walls. By the time he finds Yami, he's quite sure he's going to have bruises for a _week_ - and he's so tense that he's trembling. So _scared_.  
He's tempted to curl up in a ball, on the side of the alley, and just _hide_ for a bit. And equally as tempted to run back the way he came, and hide in "his" bit of the place. But he doesn't. He doesn't. Yami's still cursing at him, so that means he's still ...well, perhaps alive isn't the best word, but _here_, at least. And as scared as he is... he can't help but think that Yami might be even more so. (Most of his mind _knows_ that Yami doesn't get _scared_ - or at least not like he does. But he thinks it anyway.)

There's blood everywhere. There's blood everywhere. There's blood _everywhere_. These are his first thoughts.  
He looks a bit closer, however, and sees that, in fact, there's not as much blood as he'd thought - most of it is Yami's battered old coat. Which just so happens to be the same _colour_ as blood.  
Which also means it could be covered in blood, and he wouldn't know. He's suddenly not as reassured anymore.

Yami's still cursing, unsurprisingly, but his eyes are almost shut, and he doesn't appear to notice Bakura's approach. He _is_ bleeding; his face is bleeding, his _scar_ is bleeding. Yami's hand is bleeding, too. He's half-sitting, half-lying, his back up against the wall and his legs stretched out, and despite the continuous stream of ill-wishes coming out of his mouth, he appears to be comatose. (Not _dead_. Never _dead_. That's something different entirely - and even if it wasn't, it was something Bakura simply couldn't comprehend of him.)  
Bakura stops, a few steps away. Hesitates.  
He's still angry, after all, and though a _thing_ hasn't tried to get him yet he's still sure that one will, and, for a second, he wonders if it's - if _Yami_ is - really worth the effort.

He roughly, awkwardly, manages to get Yami into such a position that he can carry him. He's not strong, and so he drops him twice, before finding something that somehow works, but he manages it, eventually.  
Yami doesn't acknowledge him at all - but he does stop cursing.

--

He's almost made it back to where he started, when the _things_ finally appear. He freezes, for a second; despite his fear and his keyed-up state, he's shocked. Despite the knowlege-and-dread in his chest, he'd still hoped.  
He starts to run. He's shut his eyes, he doesn't want to see the _things_. But he can feel his body brush against them, anyway.

Suddenly, he's run into something solid, and there's a door handle, just _there_. So he turns the handle, and _pushes_.  
He has no idea where he's going, but it has to be better than here. The _things_ have to stay in the alley, after all.

--

He's back in the real world.  
He's lying on his bed, exactly the same as he had been before he'd gone to find Yami. Only now, incorporeal though he is, Yami's lying on top of _him_. Or perhaps "incorporeal" isn't quite the right word. Though he's not a thing made from the real world, Yami's still heavy, on his chest. He's finding it rather hard to breathe, so he shoves him off.  
But that's really all he does, as he's suddenly so exhausted he can't keep his eyes open. So he doesn't even try to.  
Despite his not having done all that much, it's been a long day.

He's alone when he wakes up. Of course.  
He's feeling a bit better, and his hand has stopped aching _quite_ so much, though it's still intent on reminding him that no, it is _still_ not at all happy with him. But really, apart from that, he's feeling quite good. (The fact that he nearly collapses with dizziness when he stands up doesn't count. That happens every so often even when he's well. Such is anaemia.)  
He doesn't really have any fresh food, but going outside - out into the weather and the public - has pretty much negative appeal for him right now, so he puts some rice on and makes do.

It's not until after he's eaten that Yami appears. He's usually good like that, Bakura's noticed. He'll interrupt anything - _anything_ - else, but eating seems to be sort of sacred. Judging from his personality, Bakura's quite sure there's a good reason for that.  
"_You,_" says Yami, full of rage. He looks down, and sighs softly. Closes his eyes and breathes. And then looks up at him.  
"_You,_" he says, equally as pissed.

It's a long fight, long and harsh and bitter. Betrayal of someone close does that to people - no matter which side they were on. It hurts too much to be rational.  
And because they're not rational, they're not coherent, either, so all it amounts to is them swearing at each other. Nothing is resolved.  
But they both feel a bit better afterwards, so perhaps it's a start.

--

Bakura lies on the couch, half-comatose. He's equal parts exhausted and bored out of his brain, so this is perhaps understandable. His hand is still practically immobile, so there's very little he can do. And that very little he's done already.  
He doesn't have a tv, yet (they're expensive, and he spends so much time on his game anyway...), so he can't even make the pretext of watching that. He just lies there, with his fuzziest blanket over him. After a while, he starts to doze.

Yami's there when he wakes up. Sometimes, he wishes Yami would just _make up his damn mind_, and stop flitting in between here and not-here. At other times, he's just glad that he doesn't have to put up with something akin to a housemate all the time.  
Yami's just looking at him, though, which he always finds mildly disturbing. As well as not being a _nice_ person, Yami is a very _intense_ person and, well. Even after all these years, he still hasn't got used to the full force of that intensity. He doesn't think he ever will.  
"_What_?" he says eventually, frowning.  
"You're sick," says Yami. Bakura rolls his eyes.  
"Oh, really? Well if _someone_ hadn't _stabbed a great big hole in my hand_..." he says, and gets ready for another fight. But Yami just frowns, looking slightly more concerned than angry now.  
"It's not that," he says. Pauses. Looks like he's going to disappear in a huff again. Doesn't. "That's not helping, but whatever it is, it's not that."  
"Well," grumps Bakura, "it could be the fact that I fucking _died_. I mean, it's not like coming back's common or anything, who _knows_ what kind of shit it messes wit - what?" he says, once he notices Yami's slightly startled look. Yami doesn't look startled very easily.  
"You died," he says, as if this is a new fact to him.  
"Yes." Bakura had assumed he'd already known. It looked like he was wrong.  
"You betrayed me, and you died _anyway_." Oh, dear. Yami's even more pissed off now.  
"Yes," he says, as it's the truth.  
"You _idiot!_" says Yami. "You _idiot_." For a second, Bakura's pretty sure he's going to hit him, for his stupidity. But he doesn't. "What was the fucking _point_, then, if you died _anyway_?"  
"Well," he snaps, "it's not like I _wanted_ to die! It's not like I did it on _purpose_!"  
"Yes, yes," snarls Yami, "that's obvious. I've been in your head long enough to know you're not suicidal! But if you were going to _get involved_, if you were going to fucking _betray_ me, you could have at least made sure you lived!"  
"What do you mean, _if_ I was going to get involved? How could I _not_ be involved!? You were fucking _possessing my body_, remember?" Bakura sat up. If they were going to fight again, he certainly wasn't going to take it lying down, that was for sure.  
"You didn't have to-"  
"Have to what? Stop you from _murdering_ someone you _just met yesterday_? Well, no. I didn't _have_ to. But I'm not a fucking doormat, you know! And you know what? I happen to think that murdering people for no reason is wrong! And I'm not about to just let you do it! In my body, no less!"  
"You-!"  
"What?" Bakura's eyes narrowed. "You've got a _problem_ with me deciding what's going on with _my_ body?" Yami stands there and seethes for a few seconds, clearly too angry to even speak.  
"There _is_ a good reason!" he finally spits out.  
"Really?" Bakura is entirely sceptical of this.  
"_Yes_."  
"Well, then, what is it?"  
"It's none of your fucking business, that's what!" This time he _does_ disappear in a huff.

The next few days, they ignore each other.  
Bakura spends most of his time on either the couch or the futon, half-asleep, doing his best to heal quickly. But after a couple of days, he can't even doze, he's that bored, so he starts to make a diorama. Of the game.  
He thinks he'll give it to Yuugi. He's quite sure he doesn't want it. It's not that it's badly done - it's far from his _best_ piece, of course, since his left hand still isn't anywhere near healed (though he can move it a bit now without it hurting _too_ much, which is good), but it's also far from his worst - it's just that it makes him feel a little uneasy. He's not sure why.  
And besides, he needs to give Yuugi a present - he did do his best to save his life, after all.

The night before the day he's going to go to school again, Yami reappears from his sulk. He's brushing his teeth, so he does his best to ignore him, rather than try and argue while he has his mouth full of toothpaste. Even in theory, that's never going to go well.  
"You're going to school tomorrow," says Yami. It's not a question. They've both calmed down quite a bit over the past few days, but there's still an underlying anger in both of them. But Bakura's doing his best to ignore him, and Yami's not overtly trying to stir things, so perhaps it shall work out. "You, just - look." He snorts in apparent irritation. "I'd tell you not to be friendly with that kid, but seeing as it's _you_, you wouldn't listen to me _anyway_. So. Look. Don't go near the puzzle. No. Don't. And _don't fucking touch it again_." At this point, he made sure he was looking Bakura right in the eyes. "Because if you do, _that bastard_ is going to try to claim you for his own, and _I will not let that happen_, understand?" He means it, and Bakura knows that. He still has no idea what's going on - but he's beginning to get an inkling that it's really, really bad.  
He goes to bed that night with a heavy heart.

--

School the next day isn't much of a surprising event. He gets chewed out by his teachers for being absent so much, only for them to do a backwards turn when they see how much homework he's done in his absence.  
There're probing questions from his classmates as to his whereabouts, of course, but he's got so good at brushing such things off that he barely notices. The girls who all but kidnapped him the last day he was at school are the most persistent, but even they get bored after about an hour.  
He gives his diorama to Yuugi and his friends, who are suitably impressed, but that's about all the interaction he has with them. It's no surprise. They don't know about Yami, after all.  
They probably just think he's crazy.

The next few weeks are relatively boring. He's managed to somehow scare off his classmates. Word has got around about the unpleasant teacher's coma, and, somehow, people always assume that he's the cause.  
And even though he _is_, that's not very nice of them, is it?  
Though he does notice people start to give sidelong glances at _Yuugi_, too, when the subject comes up, which he finds rather interesting. But it's so much easier to assume that the quiet, studious transfer student with the freaky hair and eyes is the culprit than the nice, bright cheerful, and, above all, _likeable_ guy (with _equally_ freaky hair and eyes) who's been here forever.  
Yuugi and his friends are, while not precisely avoiding him, not including him, either. They make polite remarks at each other, and that's about all.  
He's reminded oddly of Primary School.

--

Yami touches his shoulder one night, as he's cooking, and it means _can we stop fighting now?_  
He playfully shoves him out of the way, and it means _oh gods yes, please_.  
Touch is, to them... well, technically, it doesn't exist. But, in the way that it exists in their own minds, it's important. Very important.  
It's something that they don't usually even notice that they're doing - which is probably why it works - but without it, they start to go a little mad. Nothing obvious, mind (or at least not at this stage), but the sun is a little harsher, the night a little colder, food a little blander; every small irritation magnified - but only by a tiny amount.  
And despite the fact that neither of them have left, they both start to feel lonely. And ultimately, they're too dependant on each other to be able to do without.

--

There's a new craze at school - a card game. It's mainly Yuugi and his friends that actually _play_ it at school, but everyone knows about it. He hears people discussing their decks between classes. He also hears that there's a plan to make a club for it in motion, even. He's not sure that _that_ will happen - or that if it does it will last any respectful amount of time - but he's amused at just how _fast_ it's all happened. It was only, what, three days ago that he'd first heard about it. Something like that. Yuugi and his friends have apparently been playing it for some time now, but it's only recently that people have started taking it as something more that the latest thing the game otaku's playing.  
Magic & Wizards, it's called. Bakura's not really that interested - he's a tabletop gamer, mostly, after all, but after seeing a game - a "duel", they call it - in progress, Yami becomes _very interested_. Even more interested than he had when they first started playing Monster World. And while it's not exactly his thing, Bakura starts paying more attention to it - it doesn't seem all _that_ hard to play, once you get the cards, after all. They start to acquire cards - though it seems not many people like the more interesting ones, so it appears it's going to take them a while to build a deck.  
One day Yuugi has a video camera with him at school. This is unusual enough - but added to the fact that _everyone_ in the group seemed to be depressed (very odd, given their usual personalities), Bakura surmises that _something is up_. Yami's all but cackling at their obvious distress (he is really quite a sore loser), and Bakura's curious - or possibly just nosy - so he goes over and makes inquiries.  
Yuugi's grandfather's soul is in the tape? It's been put there by an Item? This "Pegasus" guy... sounds very interesting. There's no doubt in either of their minds that Yuugi and his friends are going to go and see him, too - and that they're going to go with them, one way or another.  
They start talking about this "Kingdom" place; it appears that Pegasus has invited them there, more or less. And it's just so _easy_ to show his interest in the Items... so, so easy to convince them to let him come along.  
So easy to convince them his interest is purely academic, too; all he has to do is mention his father and his work, and that he'd found one of the items some years ago.  
And he didn't even have to lie to them. It's the truth, after all.  
Just not exactly the _whole_ truth.

He feels sorry for Jounouchi.  
His sister - his _sister_ - is going blind, and his family doesn't have the money to stop it.  
Amane... Amane had got the best treatment available. Everything. Anything that could help, even a little.  
But Jounouchi's sister is alive, too.  
So he can't help but feel a bit jealous.

--

They leave for Kingdom the next Friday night.  
Despite it's popularity at school, they're rather surprised at the amount of people that show up. Obviously, this Pegasus guy isn't intent on just messing with _Yuugi_. And they're not just high school kids, either, which, for a craze, is kind of unusual. There's a rather attractive woman that Yuugi and his friends all make themselves fools over - though it's possible that Anzu was acting out of jealousy, not attraction.  
Yami, rather than being amused, is acting more _concerned_ about the amount of people attending - and what that must say about the amount of people that play.  
He obviously knows more than he's telling Bakura, and that's really pissing him off. He'd have thought that after the Monster World game - which he still hasn't got an explanation about, by the way - he might be a bit more open with his plans. Obviously not.  
But that 's okay. Bakura is going to make sure he knew what was going on this time.  
He'll make _sure_.

Jounouchi Katsuya is either a saint or an idiot, Bakura's decided.  
Jumping off a ship for some _cards_? Cards that _aren't even his_? Neither of them can understand that. It's not like they're a person, or anything - they might be rare cards, that's true, but they're not something irreplaceable, either.  
'_Though_,' says Yami, '_that proves his undying loyalty._'  
Bakura doesn't really care about that, but if what they say about idiots and colds is right, he thinks Jounouchi's just proved his sainthood.

--

He learns a lot about Magic & Wizards as Yuugi and Jounouchi make their way though this so-called Duellist's Kingdom. He'd memorised the rules before they'd left, of course, and many of the more common cards in competition - but there's nothing like watching the actual matches to learn how all that is applied in reality. And just how cut-throat this game really is.  
Yami's delight at that baffles him, but it's not really a surprise. Yami is not a _nice_ person, and this, at it's core, is not a _nice_ game. They go together rather well.

Bakura knows about the Kaiba family by reputation, of course. It's kind of hard not to - particularly when your father is sort of a businessman (or at least was, before he went back to his digs).  
But he's still surprised at how involved Yuugi seems to be with them - and on a personal level. Though as into games as the two brothers are reputed to be, he's more surprised at the fact that he _is_ surprised. Yuugi's just one of those people.  
The duel with the puppet-master raises some sneaking suspicions in his mind - and a whole lot of possibilities in Yami's.

...he can't _believe_ they forgot to bring food.  
He just can't believe it. How could they have been so _stupid_?  
Luckily, the attractive woman - her name is Kujyaku Mai, though everyone calls her by her given name - comes to their rescue. She's obviously done this sort of thing before.  
He offers to cook, and Yuugi decides he's going to help him. He ...dislikes... cooking with other people, but he can't think of a response that, given the circumstances, would be anything other than tactless.  
It comes out delicious anyway.

He's never slept out in the open before (to Yami's disgust), but it's surprisingly comfortable - so much so that he misses most of Mai's abduction by, loss to, and Yuugi's defeat of, the "player killer" known as Yami. (From the little Bakura sees of him, he's offended on behalf of his Yami - even though that's not his real name, to have someone like that share it is insulting.)  
Still, Jounouchi's antics _are_ amusing, and it adds another dimension to the game, so perhaps it's worth the missed sleep.

Yami wakes him up once it looks like everyone else has gone to sleep again. He is, of course, irritable about this.  
But Yami's looking more serious than normal, so he complies with his request to take the Ring out. As soon as he touches it, it starts to glow - and one of the points _move_ and point at the castle. He's as fascinated as he is freaked out. He hadn't known that the Ring could be used to find things.  
Yami tells him that it's limited - you can't, for example, ask it to find a lost pair of glasses, or something of the sort. But directions are okay, and people, if you know them - or have something linked to them, if they have enough magic in their soul. But mainly, he says, it can locate the other Items - providing you don't ask it to do something different, it will do that automatically, if one is in range.  
He asks that why, then, isn't it pointing to Yuugi's puzzle. That earns him a gentle cuff 'round the head. _Because_, says Yami, _we already know it's there!_ That doesn't exactly make sense, to Bakura, but as it's magic, he doesn't argue with it.  
Yami's pleased with this, though - it's proof that Pegasus really does have an Item.  
He's about to ask why it matters so much, when a vine drops on Honda, who, thinking it's a snake, freaks out and wakes everyone up. He uses the opportunity to hide the Ring from them. He doesn't want awkward questions, if he can help it.

When the helicopter arrives, he about ready to start stealing the soul of whatever idiot had woken him up _this_ time. It was becoming apparent that he was just fated to have a sleepless night - and as he hadn't slept the night before, that made him slightly irritable. Yami thought he was a wimp, of course, but, well. It was annoying.  
It's the other Kaiba brother. After about five minutes he decides he doesn't like him all that much.  
It's only after Jounouchi gets his ass handed to him (attitude aside, he _is_ a good player) that he realises Yami feels the same sort of _hatred_ for him as he does for Yuugi.

--

At least, after that he gets to sleep the rest of the night. And despite the all-too-frequent interruptions, he's surprisingly alert.  
Well, they'd slept until half past nine, so that probably had something to do with it.  
Of course, not long after that, Jounouchi goes missing. It looks like it'll be another eventful day.

He's not quite sure how the day can get worse. They're trapped. Underground. Left to _die_ by that bastard foreigner and his friends!  
They don't have any food or water and the entrance they came in has been blocked and there might not be another exit and...  
Yami pulls him back into the space-in-the-back-of-his-mind. He doesn't do that often; it's a measure of how badly he's freaking out, really.  
He's not all the way back - he can't see anything other than the real world - but he can feel Yami (Yami's soul?) hold him (his soul?) close until he stops shaking.  
"_Idiot_," says Yami, but it's not an angry word, really. "You'd never have survived back home." Bakura doesn't quite get the true meaning of that until _after_ he stops panicking, some hours hence.  
"I..." he whispers. He's not sure if he's far enough back that he's speaking in the real world, too, so he tries to be quiet.  
"Shut up," says Yami. "I know. Use the Ring." Use the Ring? But they've been trying to keep it hidden from Yuugi... "Your fears aren't _entirely_ unjustified. We could be in here for days before we find an exit, if it's a big enough system. Use the damn Ring."  
He does so.  
There's questions, of course, but he brushes them off as best he can, using the 'my father asked me to look after it for him' excuse. He's not quite sure they buy it - especially not Yuugi - but they at least drop the subject, and let him concentrate.  
Unlike the night before, using the Ring to find the exit takes some work. He has to make sure he's thinking pretty much only of that - not that that's hard, given that, at the moment, that's the only thing he wants in the world.  
His fears aren't at all put to rest when they come across the Maze Brothers - but they can't move forward until they're beaten.

Of course, with Yuugi as one of the participants on _their_ side, the result is pretty much preordained. He doesn't pay much attention to what's going on, really.  
Anzu _does_ ask him what the matter is, but he brushes it off as best he can. His (now that they've found other live human beings, that actually know their way around, rather irrational) fear isn't exactly something he wants to discuss.  
Yuugi - or, perhaps, more accurately, the other Yuugi - messes with people's heads, a little, and he can _feel_ Yami's amusement. He'll ask what's going on later, once the walls stop _looming_ so much. But whatever the other Yuugi does, it works, and they're moving on again, and then they're _free_. Sunshine, blessed sunshine. He isn't really a daytime person, but he'll be up dawn 'til dusk every day for the rest of his life if it means he won't get stuck underground again.  
He's shaking again, but this time it's with relief.

--

Yuugi loses.  
Yami cackles with sheer _delight_ at the back of his mind.  
And though he does try his best to comfort Yuugi - he can't help but be impressed by Kaiba's manoeuvre. He would, he thinks, make a great DM.

Bakura recognises what's happened the second the younger Kaiba steps into the room. It's slightly different to what Ya... to what they do, but it's close enough. And even if it isn't, he's seen enough of soulless bodies to last a lifetime.  
Yami's interested enough to join him in the front -the normal part- of his mind. It's a very odd sensation, and it doesn't happen very often. But it's... not discomforting.  
They watch, as Kaiba - the same Kaiba that just beat Yuugi - gets taken apart.  
The Eye is real, then. Even if the Ring _hadn't_ shown them where it was, they'd know it. The Eye is here, and it is powerful. And it's owner is an absolute bastard.  
Yami wants that Eye, though, that much is obvious, and the only way they'd be able to get it would be to rip it out of his face.  
Bakura's not quite sure about that.

Roughly about the same time Yuugi - the other Yuugi - calls out in surprise at the painting of an Egyptian man on the wall, Yami does the same in his head.  
'_Shada_!' says Yami. _Shadi_, the others says.  
But on all other accounts they seem to agree - holder of the Key, and an all-around bastard.  
He'd be somewhat amused at the fact that they're all agreeing on something, but he's a little too horrified at what the Key _does_ to notice.  
'_The _things _would eat him,_' he whispers in his mind. He feels Yami's confusion.  
'_What things?_'  
'_The things._' He shudders even thinking about it. '_In the alley._'  
'_There's nothing-_'  
'_There _is_. They tried to eat me,_' he says. Yami is instantly concerned, which is kind of touching.  
'_When was this?_'  
'_Just after I- when you weren't in my head anymore. I had to go find you. They tried to eat me._' If he can stick to short sentences, maybe he won't remember. Or at least maybe he won't remember so _vividly_.  
'_What the hell are you talking about?_' He's spared from having to answer by Honda and Jounouchi fighting.  
And the whole thing slips his mind once they eyeballs come out.

He's tired. He's _really_ tired. And it's the middle of the night. _Why_ is he not asleep in his bed?  
Oh, that's right. Because he shares a mind with a _sadist_, that's why!  
'_Quit whining_,' says Yami. '_You know you want to look around too,_' Which is entirely beside the point.  
'_I'd rather we didn't skulk around like some sort of criminal to do so!_' he snaps back.  
'_But we _are _criminals!_' says Yami, somehow gleeful at the prospect. '_So it's only fitting we do this the proper way._'  
'_...shut up,_' he says. He doesn't want to think about that. And then Yami's standing beside him, instead of in his mind. Running a hand through his hair. Whispering in his ear. '_It's nothing to be ashamed of, Yadonushi-mine. Nothing to be ashamed of at _all_. We've wanted to, and we have, and who can tell _Us _what to do? They don't - they _can't _- understand, so why,_' he can feel his breath on his ear - but how? '_worry about what they call us, yes?_' He shivers, and it's not because it's cold.

He'd kind of like to kill Yami right now.  
Really, he would. Getting caught by guards _on purpose_? What good can that do? (Yami, of course, isn't saying anything - but is also acting incredibly smug, as he does his best to talk his way out of this situation. So aggravating!)  
...and now Honda's very, _very_ lucky neither of them hurt him _very badly_ just then. What was he thinking, grabbing them like that!  
...well, it appears that Honda's dead set on getting himself killed anyway, so... It's kind of a petty vengeance, but he goes along with Honda's 'plan'. He has to play the fool again, which is so _very_ embarrassing, but, well. Petty revenge usually is.

He's let Yami be 'in charge' of his body, for a bit. He hasn't got a sporty bone in his body, after all, but Yami does, and what they're doing rather requires it. Rescuing Princess Honda from his high tower will be the _ultimate_ form of revenge, after all.  
And hey, they might find something else interesting, while they're at it.

It's not that he's surprised at Yami's violence, really. It's more that he's surprised at the whole lack of new Monster World models.  
But, perhaps that would scare Honda a little more than necessary. They want to scare him, after all, and take him down a few (more) pegs - but they don't want him running off to Yuugi, terrified. That would be... counterproductive.  
And the whole, you know, 'ahahaha how much do you _suck_' works so much better when you're on an equal footing. (Well, more or less equal, anyway.)  
The look on his face _is_ worth it.

--

Honda is suspicious of them, of course. It's not everyday you find a seventeen-year-old gamer-geek that can also knock out three first-class armed guards, after all.  
And Bakura's finding he simply doesn't _care_ if he's looked at like he might explode into a violent rage any second. He's almost feeling like he wouldn't care if he _did_ explode into a violent rage in the not too distant future, even if it's just to mess with Honda's mind a bit more. He feels guilty for not feeling guilty about that. But only a little.

They rescue the younger Kaiba pretty easily. Yami's acquired the keys to the tower-prison, after all. Honda seems intent on _carrying_ the boy, though, which Bakura finds quite silly. It's been obvious that, even soulless, this boy can walk on his own. A bit like a zombie, perhaps, but still walking. He wonderes how it's done; his friend's bodies had just gone into comas. Nowhere _near_ as interesting.  
The hard part is finding somewhere to stash him for a while. Honda, despite his obvious distaste for the man, wants to rescue the elder Kaiba's body, too. He isn't in the same tower as his brother, though, so they're left with something of a dilemma. Bakura watches Yami and Honda bicker for a while, but he's gone three days without much in the way of sleep, so he dozes off eventually.

--

He's woken to Yami shoving roughly at his mind. He snarls, and does the mental equivalent of rolling over and going back to sleep. He's _not_ ready to get up yet, damnit.  
It happens again, and this time he lashes out, complete with giant _fuck off_ message. The shoving squeaks, and retreats quickly. He's about to roll over again, when his brain catches up. _Wait. Waitwaitwait. Yami doesn't squeak. ...doesn't run away, either. What the fuck is going on?_  
As he rolls out of bed, he hears Yami - the real Yami - laughing at someone. Not him. Hmm.  
He moves from 'sleeping' to 'awake and in control of his body' in almost an instant. His eyes feel heavy, and, despite his annoyance, it's all he can do not to fall asleep again on the spot. Unlike his mind, his body's obviously not got any sleep. Again.  
"What the _fuck_," he yawns, "is going on?" This is roughly the point where his vision clears enough for him to be able to see properly. He blinks. Nothing changes.  
"You're Pegasus, aren't you?" he asks the rather shocked looking man.

He doesn't like Pegasus at all, he's decided. He knows Yami doesn't like him at all either. Of course, this is probably why Yami's going out of his way to pick a fight with the man. Bakura's not stupid, he can tell when someone's picking a fight - even _when_ said person's not living in his head.  
In the end, though, Pegasus justifies everything - _everything_ - he'd done with some lady called 'Cynthia'. As he'd been asleep through that explanation, that goes right over his head - at least until Yami info-dumps him on the subject.  
"She's _dead_," he yells. He didn't even realise he's moving until after the fact. "She's _dead_, and you can't bring the dead back!" (No matter how much you want to no matter how much it hurts no matter what you'll sacrifice you can't you can't you _can't_.)  
"I _saw_ her! I-" He cuts him off.  
"You were delusional! You'd just lost an _eye_, for fuck's sake! _It wasn't real._"  
"It was, you foolish little boy! You have _no idea_..." That was it. He snaps.  
"_Play a game with me_," he says, and feels the darkness surround them.

Okay, so maybe a Game of heads-or-tails isn't exactly the most impressive thing out there. He doesn't care. He won.  
"As punishment," he says, "I think I'll take that eye of yours." And then he _smiles_.

--

He wakes up in his own bed.  
He's not sure how he got there. The last thing he really remembers is - oh, _gods_. Did he really....  
There's blood still under his fingernails.  
He doesn't quite make it to the toilet before he throws up.

Despite his own feelings on the matter, however, it's obvious that Yami's pleased with him. He tries not to dwell on the reasons for that too much, though. Because, well. It's kind of nice.

By the time he wakes up, it's too late to go to school on Monday. But come Tuesday, he goes and... though he knows he shouldn't be, he's surprised at the normality. Other than Yuugi and his friend's happier spirits, it's the same as any other day. He's twitchy, for a while. But he always is, post wierd-things-happening.  
One of the weirdest things does happen at school, though - Yuugi and his group seem to have taken him in. It isn't just a hello, good bye sort of thing, anymore - it's like he actually _belongs_.  
It's really quite nice.

Before long, though, exams are upon them. Bakura isn't worried at all about them - not to get into second year! - but everyone else is, it seems. So, he helps them study, as best he can.  
Yuugi is unsurprisingly quite bright, once he puts his mind to it (which it often takes all four of them, _plus_ his other self to get him to do), and Anzu is thorough and organised (she has to be, to juggle ballet, study, a secret part-time job _and_ still have something like a social life). Honda isn't an idiot, but he doesn't _care_ too much about his marks (but will study if everyone else is, at least). Jounouchi is the one he worries about most, actually. It's isn't as if he's anything like stupid, and he's _so_ dedicated to his continuing education Bakura had no doubt he'll at least end up with a degree - or perhaps even a PHD. It's just that he has trouble understanding things that don't directly relate to the real world. Geography, fine, language, fine, applied mathematics... not so good.  
But they get through them in the end, and everyone passes, at the very least. He ends up being second in the year, actually, which he's happy with (apparently the elder Kaiba brother goes to their school. No wonder they had known him so well! And as he is a renowned genius, he really doesn't feel at all bad about losing to him), but impresses Yuugi, Jounouchi and Honda to no end.

He spends much of the holidays working on his board. Or, at least, that was his intention.  
He _does_ end up working on it quite a bit, but nowhere _near_ as much as he'd planned - he keeps being asked out to things. And, he goes. They spend a lot of time playing games - either at Yuugi's house, or at arcades.  
He begins to find that he's really enjoying himself, too. It's nice. And though he knows he'll never admit it, he thinks Yami is, too. Just a little. (As long as the other Yuugi isn't around, anyway.) He still doesn't offer to host another Monster World game - and they don't ask, either.

With his father still away, he has to stand in for him at the Museum, a bit. Nothing big - just meeting some of people putting on the exhibits, and other small things. His father has implied that he'll be inheriting it when he is older, so normally he is more than happy to do such things, and they fit in so well with his normal life he barely notices.  
Only, the nice Egyptian lady who's come over from Cairo to check the space out before deciding what she'll bring for the upcoming Ancient Egypt exhibit? Has one of the Items.  
He's pretty sure she hasn't noticed him noticing, and even Yami had admits that trying to grab it now - especially when she'll be back in the country for longer than a weekend in a few months - is too risky. But still. It makes him wonder, a bit.  
Something big is coming, he's sure. He has no idea what it is, but he's sure it'll change his life.

The night before school starts again, Yami appears as he's running around making sure he has everything ready for tomorrow. This in itself isn't particularly unusual - Yami often appears at odd times, after all - but his serious, almost pensive face is.  
"What," he says, not paying all that much attention - he's too busy trying to make sure his uniform is clean, his books are all together, his pencil-case is full, his shoes are clean, he has enough food in the place to make lunch in the morning...  
"...you," says Yami and then pauses. The uncharacteristic hesitance makes Bakura look up and actually pay attention for a second. "You said that there are... _things_. In our head. That aren't us. That attacked you."  
"Yes," he says, but finds himself otherwise at a loss for words. That had been _weeks_ ago, now. What did it matter anymore? But Yami seems to be serious about it, at least.  
"Tell me." Bakura frowns at him.  
"Tell me why you hate the other Yuugi, then," he says.

Later, he'd wonder why Yami waited until it was _the day before school started again_ to ask him. At the time, he's too upset to care.

--

He's starting to get used to this whole I'm-actually-exhausted-but-I'm-not-going-to-show-it thing. Which he thinks is kind of a bad thing. Particularly as it involves catnapping with his eyes open during class. Well, his understanding of what they're being taught is unchanged, so it probably isn't _too_ bad of him, but still...  
Their new class is almost the same as their old one - there are a couple of changes, but they'd all stuck together, which is kind of nice.  
And most of the girls that had been giggling at him are now fawning over someone else - black hair, not all that bad looking (_pretty_, in fact, says Yami, and he finds he has to agree). Slightly full of himself, though, it seems. _Otogi Ryuuji_, says Yuugi.  
Then he humiliates Jounouchi, and Bakura decides he doesn't really like him. The other Yuugi humiliates him back, of course, but that's it, for him. He might like thoroughly trouncing people - but humiliation is something he can't stand.

--

Bakura has no idea what DDD is (nor, does it seem, does _anyone_), but he goes along to the launch anyway. Yuugi's almost exploding with excitement about it (_such_ a game otaku... not that he can really talk), and despite his grandfather's misgivings about the whole thing, they go in and buy some of the ...boosters, he supposes. Yuugi said he's going to buy a rule book, too (and given how expensive they were, Bakura is going to _let_ him. He doesn't want to buy one until after he at least knows what the game _is_).  
But they wait outside the store for nearly an hour, before the guards tell them what had happened. It's obviously a pack of lies; Yuugi's too honest a soul to even _consider_ such a thing. (And the half-dozen boosters that Yami had secreted on his person is proof that they aren't actually all that good at finding thieves, anyway.)  
But still... he has a very bad feeling about this...

Whatever it actually is, though, DDD is _so cool_. Dice. It's a game of _dice_.  
He has no idea what the symbols on the dice mean, but they're still awesome. And then Jounouchi drops one by accident.... and it pops open to reveal a monster! Dice! With monsters inside! So cool!  
They spend a few hours at Yuugi's house with his grandfather, trying to figure out what the game actually is, and pretending not to fret about Yuugi. Eventually, though, he starts worrying a little too much, and makes his excuses. The way home from Yuugi's house is the opposite way to what he wants to go, but it's not too hard to double back. It's late, now; they've closed the store. Well, it _is_ a Sunday, that's hardly surprising. Of course, since it's obvious that Yuugi's still there, the security guards are too.  
Yami takes care of the guards, though. (He's worried about Yuugi, too, not that he'd ever say as much. Because, despite his hatred of the other Yuugi... it's impossible to dislike Yuugi. Not for long, anyway.) They don't have any guards in Monster World yet, anyway. Not _real_ guards, at least.

They watch, for a bit, before they make themself known. Yuugi's in trouble. And the Puzzle's in pieces again.  
They kind of want to kill Otogi's father for that. Just a lot. Three thousand years since it's been solved... who would break something like that? (Steal it, they can understand, if it stays whole, but _break_ it? It makes no sense.)  
They still don't know how to play the game... but this is _Yuugi_. And they know that he can win.  
Unfortunately, he seems to be losing faith in himself, rather rapidly. The loss of the puzzle hit him deeply. (Bakura can sort of understand. If someone took his Ring... well, he'd get violent rather than weepy, but it's much the same concept, really.) Yami makes an annoyed noise in their head, but... they know what they have to do.

Yuugi's surprised to see them, of course. They're expecting that. It's just that they're acting like they're a DM (he does this whenever he's nervous, actually, and it somehow come naturally to Yami, when he's not talking to Bakura), and they can see the slight fear in him, too. That... sort of hurts.  
But they grin (really, they do, and that kind of scares Otogi) and bear it, and they encourage Yuugi along as best they can without actually knowing what's going on in the game. This mostly involves bluffing. But they're good at that.

And, surprise surprise, Yuugi wins. They have to use a bit more of their inside information about the Puzzle than Yami really wants to to spur him on, but he wins.  
Bakura helps him pick up the pieces of the puzzle. Only, Yami... borrows one. And does _something_ to it, before giving it back.  
'_Yami, what..._'  
'_It's to keep track of him,_' he says. '_In case something else like this happens to him._' Bakura can't hear him lying... but he's not so sure that's the _whole_ truth, either. But he lets it slide.

They think that's it, then. Yuugi's won, and asserted his dominance over Otogi and his father - at least for the moment. They're really not expecting Otogi's father to break all the rules of gaming decency, and _grab_ Yuugi. They're really, really not - and by the time they see what's happening, getting involved could get... messy. (And stealing souls is sort of not the sort of thing you should do when you're going to have witnesses, if at all possible. Particularly when you have a string of comas behind you already.)  
Yuugi's taken into a back room, and after about a minute, smoke starts coming out. Half a second later, the cavalry, otherwise known as Jounouchi, Honda, Anzu and Mutou Sugoroku show up. They appear to already know that he's here, which he finds interesting... but nowhere _near_ as pressing as the current situation.  
Honda and Jounouchi break the door down... and he can feel Yami go queasy at the flames. He doesn't _want_ to know how that works.  
Yuugi won't leave the puzzle, though. Everyone else thinks he's mad, but Bakura understands. Even though he somehow knows that fire alone won't destroy it... he understands.  
He wouldn't be able to leave the Ring, either.

--

He's visiting the hospital every day again.  
But unlike last year... this time, he's filled with hope.

--

He knows Yuugi wants to talk to him. He's not at all surprised about that, actually. But while he's in the hospital, there's not really a chance to; there's always people everywhere. There always are, in hospitals - except for perhaps the coma ward (which he has to sort of acknowledge was created due to him. He tries not to think about that). And Yuugi does have some tact.  
But even though Yuugi's injured worse than Jounouchi is (more time in middle of the fire, plus a smaller frame will do that to you...), it's not all that long before he's back at school, too. It's almost summer, as well, so it's not that hard for Yuugi to get Jounouchi, Honda and Anzu to go and play basketball one lunchtime. It's masterfully done; if he wasn't watching for something like it, he never would have noticed. In fact, given that it's Yuugi, he may not have done it consciously. But it's still ...interesting.

They try to convince them to play basketball too. But Yuugi's got a new game - an odd 3D maze, today - so they don't push him too hard. They try a bit more with Bakura, despite having seen how awful he is at the sport in class, but they eventually leave him alone. He continues eating his lunch and mentally designing a new dungeon boss model.  
It only takes Yuugi five minutes to finish his maze. He fidgets nervously for a second, glancing up at Bakura.  
"Bakura-kun, I..." He looks down at Yuugi (he's sitting on his desk), and smiles.  
"Shall we go to the roof, then?" Yuugi's look of shocked embarrassment is absolutely priceless.

The chain-link fence is a little high to lean against, but he tries his best, anyway. He's tempted to jump up and sit on the top of it, like Yami's doing, but he's already a head and a half taller than Yuugi, who's looking nervous enough already, so he doesn't.  
He looks out over the city, and waits for Yuugi to say something. He hasn't actually been up on the roof, before, apart from the bit you have to cross to get to the science labs. It's kind of a nice view, actually.  
"Bakura-kun..." Yuugi starts. Stops. Looks around nervously. He wonders why it's so hard for Yuugi to just say it.  
"The guards, at Otogi-kun's shop, they were... and I..."  
"Were wondering if the Amazing Coma Boy had struck again?" says Yami, and Yuugi jumps in shock.  
"Ba... Bakura-kun... there's someone sitting on the fence behind you..." he says.

Okay, so not only can Yuugi _hear_ Yami, he can see him, too, once he knew he was there.  
This is... unusual.  
Bakura deliberately ignores any jealousy he may or may not feel at that.

"Oh," he says, "yes. There is," so you're not crazy, is implied, though he doesn't say that, as it wouldn't be _precisely_ true. Yuugi calms down at his completely unsurprised tone, which is a very good thing.  
"He's... someone you know?"  
"I am," says Yami, jumping down of the fence and peering at Yuugi over Bakura's shoulder, "the soul sealed into _that_ Ring." He grins, full of scary teeth. "Similar to the other you, an essence of _darkness_."  
"I call him Yami for short," says Bakura, giving a half-grin.

Once he gets over his shock, Yuugi's very curious about them, unsurprisingly. They try not to give away _too_ much - neither of them is comfortable with others knowing their secrets - but Yuugi doesn't call out his other self, so it's not a bad time.  
Bakura's never been around anyone else that can see Yami before, so it takes a while for him to get used to; he's so used to not outwardly acknowledging anything Yami says that it's difficult to remember that it's actually a proper conversation between three people, not a two-way one with snide comments in between.  
Yuugi asks about the comas, of course, and while they admit that yes, they had caused them... that's all they say about it. And Yuugi's smart enough not to push them.  
Before long, though, the bell for lunch goes, and they have to hurry back to class. He can tell Yami wants to say something to him... but doesn't. Perhaps it's because of Yuugi, perhaps it's because he worries about being on class on time... but all he does is touch his hair, and disappear back into the place-in-the-back-of-his-mind.

He's slightly wary, the rest of the day... but Yuugi doesn't say a thing to anyone else about Yami. He's relieved, about that. He doesn't really mind Yuugi knowing (Yuugi, who can, in some small way, _understand_), but everyone else... he doesn't want them to know. Not if he can help it. Not yet.  
But Yuugi has compassion, as well as smarts, so he's pretty sure he won't tell unless he has to, since he doesn't immediately.

--

Yami jumps him, as soon as he gets home. His hands are in his hair and he's pushing him against the wall, and he's kissing him, and... it's pure ownership. With everything he is, Yami is saying _mine_ to him. And for some reason that makes him happy, so, with all his body and soul, he says _mine_ back. If he didn't know better, he wouldn't have even known that Yami wasn't physically there.  
It's not about lust at all... though as he goes off to make dinner, he concedes he wouldn't mind if it _was_, either.

--

The next day at school, everyone's talking about the exhibit opening on the weekend at the museum.  
"Oh," he says, once he figures out just which exhibit they're talking about, "you mean Ms. Ishtal's exhibit. Yes, I think it will be a good one; some stuff that's never been out of Egypt before is supposed to have come over for it." He hasn't seen it himself, yet; he's supposed to go over on Thursday evening, to check that everything's going smoothly (which it is; they'd have called him if it wasn't), and it's still only Tuesday.  
It takes him a moment to notice that they're staring at him. He moves his head in a silent 'what?' gesture.  
"Bakura-kun..." says Anzu, "You know the person putting on the exhibit?" He laughs, short, but not exactly bitter.  
"Not exactly. I met her, a while ago, but...." he pauses. Thinks. What should he say? He decides on the purest truth. Its nothing bad, and Yuugi... and _these people_ deserve that, if he can give it. "My father, he owns the museum. But he's abroad right now, so I occasionally have to look after things for him here." He smiles, and they stare at him a little more.  
"Wow," says Honda, after a second.  
"That's cool!" adds Jounouchi. He smiles at them again.  
"So I can get you in for free, if you want!" And then they laugh, and, like so much that happens to this group... they just accept it for what it is.

They're so enthusiastic about the exhibit that he invites them to come along on Thursday. It's almost summer, so it's still light out, despite it's being almost eight out. (They'd eaten beforehand, and the museum wasn't exactly _close_ to school in any case, after all)  
Ms. Ishtal is standing at the top of the steps as they're climbing them, arguing with a blond boy (roughly their age?) in Arabic. His Arabic isn't all that good, and they're speaking very fast, so he's not certain what they're arguing _about_, though.  
He can feel the Ring notice them, though. He wonders if it's just pointing out Ms. Ishtal's Item again, or if the blond boy has one, too. Neither would really surprise him, the way things are going.  
As they get a bit closer, he can tell that something's ...off... about the blond, too.  
'_He's given himself to chaos,_' says Yami. "_Or perhaps only part of himself?_' he sounds confused. And Bakura knows enough about the world to know that when Yami's confused about things involving magic... bad things are about to happen.

As he greets Ms. Ishtal, and vaguely (very vaguely, just in case) introduces his friends, he notices the way the blond eyes the Puzzle, and feels his apprehension return. As Ms. Ishtal introduces the blond as her brother, Malik, the apprehension somehow turns to dread. There will be trouble, from this one, he somehow knows.  
Yami rolls his eyes at him, and calls him a melodramatic twit, of course, and starts to plot on how to best _use_ the boy, which he thinks is rather mean of him. But he's not surprised at all.  
And as he chats to Ms. Ishtal, he notices the way _she's_ eyeing Yuugi, too. And he almost bursts out laughing. She doesn't know he knows about Yuugi and the puzzle, and he's sure that the only reason she hasn't all but jumped him. Because no matter how much you want to talk to _the one who solved the Puzzle_, you don't do anything that might offend the guy who is, to all intents and purposes, in charge of your exhibit. That's just good sense.

It's a very interesting exhibit. Yuugi and his friends wonder over the two tablets, of course. Bakura finds them amusing - and slightly unsettling - himself, but what _really_ throws him is some of the newly-unearthed jewellery. It's old and slightly broken, as most discoveries are - time has a way of doing that to things, after all. But it's unmistakably the same things Yami wears, as his spirit-self.  
It obviously disturbs Yami, too; he just stands there, staring, for the longest time. He thinks, privately, that perhaps it's only now - seeing something of his own put on display as the ancient past - that Yami really _understands_ what had happened to him.  
He wants to hold him, to let him know _hey, you still have me, I'll be yours forever_, but he's quite sure that Yuugi and his friends aren't _quite_ so involved with the tablets as to ignore that. And getting them involved with something so personal would just be awful.

They don't get home until after midnight. It isn't unusual for him to be up that late, this is true, but it's still quite a weird thing, for them.  
He potters about the kitchen, for a while, washing the morning's dishes, and making sure he'll have enough food ready-to-go for lunch tomorrow. He has the feeling he'll sleep in in the morning. But he does that most Fridays. It isn't a hard thing to guess.  
Yami is quieter than usual, and just curls up on on corner of the couch. It doesn't surprise him, but it still worries him. So after he's finished in the kitchen, he goes over to him. And though it's physically impossible, he sits on his lap, and strokes his hair, and they stay that way until they both fall asleep.  
And it is enough.


End file.
